Playboy goes after grown-up gamers with pixilated pinups

Published 10:00 pm, Wednesday, September 8, 2004

In a new twist, video game characters such as "BloodRayne" are featured in Playboy's October issue.

In a new twist, video game characters such as "BloodRayne" are featured in Playboy's October issue.

Photo: PLAYBOY

Playboy goes after grown-up gamers with pixilated pinups

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Playboy is taking a chance on silicon instead of silicone.

The October issue of the men's magazine features several video game characters posing in the nude -- images created by the game companies through detailed computer illustration.

"Hopefully, the purists won't get too bent out of shape. This is just the next version of the pinup," said Playboy senior editor Scott Alexander, who developed the project.

The computerized models are part of the magazine's video game preview, titled "Gaming Grows Up." The five-page section starts with a topless image of the half-vampire, half-human title character from "BloodRayne," a leather-clad woman who fights with 3-foot blades attached to her arms.

The next image is a full-frontal, two-page foldout of a character named Luba Licious from the upcoming mature-rated comedy game "Leisure Suit Larry," which is about a shrimpy guy who travels to a college campus courting impossibly buxom coeds.

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"We treated these women just like they are celebrities," Alexander said. "We treated them real, as if they had turn-ons and turnoffs."

In between are short articles about upcoming games such as "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas," racing games like "Need for Speed: Underground 2" and "Gran Turismo 4" and battle games like "Men of Valor," "Full Spectrum Warrior" and "Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault."

"Part of the thrust of the piece is that gaming is not just for kids," Alexander said. "We want to establish the way Playboy's going to be covering video games. We want to cover them from the perspective of an adult who has a life. ... We're writing for the grown-up who may play five hours a week, if that much."